Biden's deterioration unnerved House Democrats as early as 2023, new book reveals

Some of the first House Democrats to call for former President Biden to drop his reelection bid in 2024 saw firsthand signs of his deterioration as early as 2023, according to a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.Why it matters: Many top Democrats, including White House officials, donors and lawmakers, ignored what they were seeing for months or even years. Others, the book says, noticed Biden's shortcomings but kept quiet.In the end, it was self-preservation that spurred many Democrats to finally drop the charade and urge Biden to get out of the race after his disastrous presidential debate.The book "Original Sin" is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.Driving the news: Thompson and Tapper write that a White House Christmas party in 2023 was a watershed moment for several Democratic lawmakers.Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, was "stunned" to see Biden "completely out of it" while interacting with guests at the photo line.Upon leaving the party, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and his wife, Liz, "remarked on how frail the president looked and how lethargic he seemed compared with the previous December."Zoom in: For Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the book says, the epiphany came even earlier.During a trip to Ireland in April 2023, Quigley saw Biden rapidly go from energetic to drained. "This was how his father, Bill, had been before he died," the authors write."Biden, Quigley thought, needed to go to bed for the rest of the day and night. He wasn't merely physically frail; he had lost almost all of his energy. His speech was breathless, soft, weak."The other side: "There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover-up or conspiracy," a Biden spokesperson told Axios."Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn't otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill."Some Democrats have leapt to Biden's defense, with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) saying in a CNN interview that he "never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job."Zoom out: Smith, Moulton and Quigley were among the first House Democrats to call on Biden to withdraw his bid for reelection after his debate with Trump in June 2024.But they and other House Democratic colleagues had largely kept quiet up until that point.Former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who challenged Biden in the Democratic primary, had "tried to get other Democrats to talk about the president's decline, but no one was willing to say anything publicly," the book says.The former congressman is quoted as saying later: "The whale who spouts gets harpooned."Between the lines: At a debate watch party, one House Democrat who watched the calamity unfold exclaimed to House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.): "I just lost my job."Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) heard from swing-district House Democrats who "were getting polling back that indicated Biden's campaign was going to drag dozens of them down with it," the book says.Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) said at a closed-door Democratic caucus meeting: "I lived through the 2010 bloodbath — we lost sixty-three seats. That could happen again."This story is adapted from the book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.

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